New Beginnings
by nightingale096
Summary: Madge Undersee has moved to a brand new city because of her dad's job. Starting fresh at Panem High School may not be the easiest thing but she's ready for it. Cliques, boys, parties, friends, this year is going to be an interesting one. Afterall, they are teenagers, drama is guaranteed! Modern Day
1. Chapter 1

"Madge, wake up! You don't want to be late your first day at your new school!" I grumbled to myself and silently cursed my dad's new job for causing us to relocate. I mean, honestly, what sixteen year old girl wants to start over in a new city, at a new school, with new people? Not Madge Undersee. That's for sure.

I rolled out of my new bed in my new bedroom and headed over to my new closet. "New" I whispered to myself, "I hate that word." I finally picked out an outfit and decided it was first day worthy. I put on the clothes and analyzed them in the mirror.

On my body was a sheer black lace blouse with buttoned cuffs. Since the top was primarily see through, underneath I wore a simple black camisole. _Wouldn't want to break dress code on the first day_, I thought to myself. With the blouse, I wore a pale neon pink pleated skirt that had a bow on the back of the waist. I slipped on black bootie heels and grabbed my purse and the keys to my car and I was out the door.

First day at a new high school? Challenge accepted.

I pulled my black Range Rover into the student parking lot of Panem High School and looked around. Students were buzzing, walking from car to car, chatting with friends and laughing amongst themselves

Would I make friends here? Probably not. My father's new position was pretty high up on the food chain and from experience, I know that meant that people were either one: intimidated by him, two: scared of him, or three: annoyed by him. However, all of these meant one thing: that they steered clear of me. Lucky, right?

I hopped out of my car, smoothed my skirt across my thighs, grabbed my purse and walked into the front entrance of the school. I went to what I assumed was the office to get my schedule, books, and locker assignment. The secretary, a quite bubbly woman named Mrs. Trinket welcomed me with a smile.

"You must be Margaret Undersee, our newest student!" she extended her hand and I grasped it, giving it a firm shake. "Nice to meet your Mrs. Trinket. I actually go by Madge." She nodded in response and began typing on her computer. Minutes later I had three pieces of paper. One was my schedule which also doubled as a map of the school, the second was the list of books I would need to get at the school library, and the other was my locker number and combination.

I folded the papers, and placed them inside my black, patent leather quilted Coach tote bag, said good bye to Mrs. Trinket, and headed towards the library to pick up my books before class.

While walking, I pulled out my schedule to examine my classes.

_First Period: Honors Sophomore Math- Mrs. Cartwright _

_Second Period: Honors Chemistry- Mrs. Thomason _

_Third Period: Advanced Placement Government- Mr. Abernathy_

_Fourth Period: Physical Education- Mrs. Atala_

_LUNCH_

_Fifth Period: Honors Language- Mrs. Louis_

_Sixth Period: Advanced Placement Art- Mr. Fields_

Upon looking at my schedule, I rolled my eyes. The majority of my classes were advanced placement or honors courses which mean one thing. Studying.

There goes my social life. Oh, wait. I forgot. I don't have one.

I finally reached the large wooden doors of the library and went inside to retrieve my books. I received books for Language, Chemistry, and Government. All of which were thick and heavy with information.

I toted the books to my locker, entered my combination and shoved them inside. The first bell rang, signaling that it was time for school to begin and I headed off to my first class.

Since I had no clue where I was going, I kept my head down, looking at the map of the school in my hands. I didn't look up until I ran smack dab into someone.

"I am so sorry!" I exclaimed, embarrassed by my lack of attention. I looked up at the person I had collided with. My eyes discovered a blonde headed boy with a friendly smile, with friendly blue eyes to match. "It's no problem at all. My name's Peeta—Peeta Mellark. You must be new here, I haven't seen you before." I nodded my head and extended my hand in his direction. "I'm Madge Undersee, I just moved here. It's nice to meet you." He shook my hand and smiled back at me. "Peeta, I'm kinda lost since it's my first day. Do you mind pointing me in the direction of one of my classes?" He nodded, and picked up my dropped map off of the floor. "Sure, what class?" "Mrs. Cartwright's honors sophomore math." I said, anticipating his directions. "Hey, I have that class too! I'm headed there now!" He said, his blue eyes twinkling. A genuine smile spread across my face when I realized that I might've actually made a friend.

We reached the classroom right before the late bell rang, our little encounter in the hallway causing us to have taken longer. Peeta sat down in a desk towards the middle of the right hand side of the room and motioned me to follow. A girl with dark hair braided down her back, and piercing grey eyes looked at me as I sat down. Her eyes traveled from me to Peeta, and a look of question arose from her face.

"Katniss, this is Madge Undersee." He motioned towards me, "Madge, this is Katniss Everdeen." The girl, Katniss, smiled at me and resumed the working on what I assumed were math problems on her desk.

The class was fairly uneventful, but I could already tell by the first day that it'd be a hard course. It turned out that for the most part, Katniss, Peeta, and I had similar schedules. The only classes I didn't have with them were AP Art and Physical Education.

Second period, Honors Chemistry, seemed like an interesting class, and the teacher, Mrs. Thomason, seemed quite nice. Third period's teacher was a whole different story.

I walked into the classroom 145, AP Government, and walked straight up to the teacher's desk. A scruffy looking man sat, leaning back with his feet perched up on the top of his desk. My eyes darted to a glint of light in his pocket, and I swore I saw a flask. Mr. Abernathy showed me where I would sat and I during the duration of the class I came up with a nickname for the cranky man—Mr. Crabernathy. I whispered my little joke to Peeta and Katniss, and the three of us broke into a fit of giggles.

"Madge, Peeta, Katniss, is there a reason that you all are disturbing the class?" I swallowed nervously, not wanting my new friends to get in trouble for my doings and spoke up.

"Yes, there is Mr. Abernathy. I kind of, well… came up with a nickname for you since you seem… grumpy." He snorted and lifted his chin to signal for me to go on. "Umm… I came up with… Mr. Crabernathy. Get it? Like you're crabby, as in cranky?"

The whole class busted into fits of laughter and even Mr. Abernathy laughed. He got up from his desk, walked in my direction and clapped his hand on my shoulder.

"I like you Madge, you're like me. You've got..spunk!" I smiled at his approval and made my way to the gymnasium for P.E.

I was ushered into the girls locker room and I changed into the required gym attire that consisted of a white tank top with the words "Panem High School" in black print with black athletic shorts. I tied on my Nike Free Runs to my feet and headed back out to the main part of the gym.

I looked around at the faces in the classroom and saw that the boys had similar clothing to ours, except they had t-shirts instead of tank tops. Coach Atala blew her whistle and grabbed the class' attention.

"Okay, today we will be running timed 400's. The girl and boy with the top scores with receive one-hundreds as their first test grades for the year. Go ahead and stretch."

I smirked to myself, running was one of my strong suits. At my old school, I was the girl's track star. Running came easily too me. I loved how I could just forget about any and everything when I ran.

I stretched my hamstrings and calve muscles and decided I was ready. The boys were racing first then the girls. As the guys lined up, I stood on the side of the track, not really paying attention to the race, or who won.

"Girls, it's y'all's turn now." Coach Atala announced while setting her timer. I got into a runner's position and awaited the sound of the whistle.

As soon as the high pitched sound wrung out in my ears, I took off, running at full speed. I looked to my right and found that no one was there. Upon looking to my left, I found a beautiful blonde girl running at the same speed as me. Determined to out-do her, I mustered up my strength and broke out into a full-on sprint. I didn't wait to slow down until after I pasted the finish mark.

Panting, I watched as Coach Atala announced the winners. "Okay class, the winners today were Gale Hawthorne, and our new student Madge Undersee. Good job you two." The class clapped, and I couldn't help but blush.

At lunch, I sat a table towards the right of the lunchroom by myself. I got the feeling that someone was staring at me and turned my back 180 degrees. Sure enough, I found a tall brooding figure glancing at me from a table at the center of the lunchroom. I made eye contact with the guy, and whipped back around as I noticed he was getting up from his seat.

I tried to busy myself by fiddling with my water bottle when I was tapped on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw the guy from the center table looking down at where I was sitting.

"Mind if I sit here for a minute?" I shook my head in response, being at a total loss for words.

_Great timing to become a mute, Madge. _I thought to myself.

I refocused my attention at the boy sitting down next to me and tried to discreetly observe his appearance.

He seemed to be at a towering height of over six feet tall and had a lean, but muscular build. His skin was a tan, olive color, his hair a dark brown, almost black. Most mesmerizing of all were his eyes. Oh, his eyes, so grey and mysterious. I couldn't actually believe that a guy this attractive was sitting next to me willingly.

"I'm Gale Hawthorne, you're new here right?" he shot me a dazzling smile, followed by a quizzical look. "Yeah, I just moved here because of my father's job. I'm Madge Undersee." I said nervously while absent mindedly twirling a lock of my hair. He gave me a strange look before asking, "Wait, are you Randall Undersee's daughter, the new Governor?" I nodded my head in response. I hated talking about my dad's job. Most people assumed that it made me snotty. "Yeah, when he was elected we had to move here." He acknowledged the information with a tilt of his head.

Gale picked up my left hand that was previously resting on the table and planted a tender kiss to it. "Well Madge Undersee, it was very nice to meet you. Hopefully I'll see you around." Too taken aback by his little show, I sat there silent while Gale walked back to the table where his friends sat, all while wearing a smirk.

Not too soon after, Peeta, Katniss, and a girl I didn't know walked over to where I was seated. Katniss sat to my right, Peeta across from her, and the other girl across from me.

"Madge, this is Delly Cartwright. Her mom is our math teacher." Oh goodness. Hopefully she wasn't one of those weird goody-two shoes kids. Most teachers' children were. Everyone always assumed that I was. I always jumped at the chance to prove them wrong.

"Hi Madge, It's nice to meet you!" She gave me a smile, and I tried my hardest to be cordial. "I know I just met you, and I'm not trying to be nosey, but what was Gale Hawthorne doing over at this table before we walked over?" I blushed when I realized that all three of their eyes were now focused on me, waiting for my reaction.

"Well, we both won the 400 race in gym today, him out of the boys, and me from the girls. Then he just came over here and introduced himself." I decided to leave the whole hand-kissing part out of the equation for right now. I mean, I trust Peeta and Katniss, but I just met this Delly chick. "Is there something that I'm missing or something?"

For a few seconds there was silence between the four of us, and then Peeta finally broke it. "Katniss, he's in a very… _popular_ crowd. Most people call them the Victors." I cocked my head to the side in confusion while Delly decided to go more in depth.

"The Victors, is like their clique name. Everyone in the group is either a wicked performer, star athlete, stuff like that. The guys in the group are Finnick Odair, Gloss Hammel, Marvel Olson, and obviously—Gale. I studied the boys at the center table trying to put faces to names, but I had no clue. I turned back to our group only to realize that Delly was still talking.

"Cashmere Hammel, Annie Cresta, Johanna Mason, and Glimmer are the female members! Everyone loves the Victors!" Delly sighed to herself, and I rolled my eyes. Popularity isn't everything. I'm sure that every single one of those "Victors" were conceited and egocentric.

.Lunch was dismissed and the rest of the day went by pretty quick. Fifth period seemed long, mostly because I hate language. Sixth period, AP Art, was really fun though. The teacher, Mr. Fields, seemed super cool. He had told us to call him by his first name, Cinna. Any teacher that allowed that had to be awesome.

At three o'clock, the dismissal bell rung and I walked happily off to my car. I smiled to myself while plunging my keys into the admission, and turning up my music to almost full blast.

New school, new year, new friends, maybe I could get used to this whole new thing.

**Hey guys! I hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter! I know it was a long one! **

**If any of you were curious to what I pictured Madge's first day outfit to look like, here's the link! **

** /product_ ?cPath=1&products_id=629&osCsid= **


	2. Chapter 2

**I am SO sorry that I have made yall wait this long for an update. I've been out of town for three weeks and just got back a couple of days ago. Oh, and just to clear things up, I am aware that I said Madge's father is the Governor and not the Mayor. I did this just because this fic is modern day, and now a days being a mayor's daughter isn't anything super special, whereas being a governor's daughter kind of is. But anywho, I'd like to apologize again for the extended wait Also, I've decided to put a song up to go with each chapter. I hope y'all enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: No matter how much I wish for it, I do not own the Hunger Games. Yeah, yeah, yeah, depressing right?**

**Song: (Nice To Meet You) Anyway by Gavin Degraw**

**Gale POV**

I walk into school, and stop by my locker to grab books for my first few classes. While rummaging through my locker, I can't help but to think of the new girl. I think her name was Madge. I smile while remembering our little encounter at lunch yesterday.

She seemed quite taken up with me, but then again, who isn't? Being attractive, a senior, and a jock did have its privileges. My friend, Finnick, had been the first to spot her. He pointed her out to the rest of the guys, making a comment about how long her legs were. This comment however received him a smack to the side of the head from his girlfriend, Annie.

I was then dared by the guys to go talk to her. I assured them that my exuberant charm would have her falling at my feet in minutes. They laughed, making sarcastic jokes about my cocky comment.

After I spoke to her, I decided, secretly of course, that I had to be with this girl. The way her long blond hair flowed in waves down her back, her slight build, her big blue eyes fringed with dark eyelashes, her collarbone that peeked out from behind her black shirt…

_Damn Gale, snap out of it! _I thought to myself. Never—I repeat, NEVER has a girl had this effect on me, and I've only spoken to her for a few minutes.

I walk to class completely entranced with thoughts of the blonde beauty until I am startled by smacking into someone else.

While moving my hand to my throbbing forehead, I look up to see who I ran into.

The only thing that crosses my mind before everything goes black is _hell, this must be fate._

My head starts pounding after the collision I just experienced moments ago. I've got to stop running into people. I look up to see a shocked Gale Hawthorne. He looks at me with gray eyes, grabs his forehead and then passes out right at my feet.

My jaw drops in surprise and I slump him up against the row of lockers. By now the halls have cleared, and Gale and I are the only ones in the hallway.

I must've smacked into him pretty hard by the looks of the goose-egg forming on his forehead. My hand reaches up only to find that I have acquired a matching one.

I scamper off to the nurses office to retrieve a bag of ice and a towel and come back to find him in a half-conscious state.

"So pretty…" he murmurs as I walk up. I instantaneously blush and then remember that he's not even fully coherent. _Fully conscious boys don't think I'm pretty. _I sigh and place the cold ice on his head and he groans from the cool temperature.

Minutes later he wakes up from the melting ice dripping down his face. I instinctively reach to brush the water droplets off his cheeks and find a smirk creeping onto his face.

"Damn, you hit me pretty hard didn't you?" Gale continues chuckling and looking at me with silvery steel orbs.

"Yeah, it seems I have a habit of running into people. Might have to add that under the skills section of my resume."

We remain in this position; us sitting slumped against the lockers cracking sarcastic jokes, for the rest of the class. When the bell rings, Gale quickly gets off the ground and offers me his hand. I grab it, and he pulls me up effortlessly. I can't help but notice how perfectly his large, calloused hand fits around my small, dainty one.

It's almost like two pieces of a puzzle, fitting exactly into place. I don't know if he feels it, but as soon as I grabbed his hand, it felt like a little spark.

I suddenly remember my past relationships and their outcomes and remember the promise I made to myself.

Charm, good looks, and fate aside, I would not be falling under his spell anytime soon.

**Hey everyone! I know this is kind of a fluff chapter, but I wanted to further develop their relationship/friendship a little bit more. Please review! Thanks :)**


End file.
